This invention relates to crayons. Crayons, as those with children well know, are coloring instruments usually cylindrically shaped with a pointed end and used by children for writing, drawing, coloring, etc. There are many manufacturers of such crayons. Most make them from well-known wax or waxy-type materials, either natural or synthetic in origin. Some of the more prominent crayon manufacturers include Binny & Smith, Rose Art, and a most recent entries such as Milton Bradley, Pentel Company and others. Crayons are usually designed for children in an age range of from about four years old to about nine years old.
Of course, crayons are easy for a child to use and draw with because of their size, because of the vivid colors, and because of their safety, i.e they lack blunt, sharp points or the strong integrity that allow them to be used as a punching projectile. At the same time, these same features, particularly the safety features that allow them to not be instruments of harm, cause some use problems. The most common problem is premature breakage.
Premature breakage as used here refers to the common problem of crayons breaking as the child uses them. Typically, small children that first begin use of writing instruments, such as pens, pencils, crayons and the like use an extraordinarily high amount of pressure in applying the writing instrument to the paper. As a result, crayons are often prematurely broken, well prior to the normal end of the useful life of the crayon. It is not uncommon for such premature breakage to occur within days of purchase of an entire package of crayons. The result is a box of short, diminutive, and often crumbled crayons that are rejected by children. Thus, even though the crayons have not even closely approached the normal end of their useful life, their useful life in fact ends because they have been broken.
This invention has as its primary objective the development of a crayon that is structurally reinforced so that it can be used by a child, even with excessive pressure against the writing paper, with minimization of premature breakage risk.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a combination structure of a conventional crayon material and a reinforcing sheath which reinforces the structural integrity of the crayon, but at the same time does not interfere with the ability to use or sharpen the crayon.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method of structurally reinforcing crayons without increasing their danger risk of improper use as a blunt instrument.
These and other additional objectives, features and advantages of the invention can be seen with reference to the accompanying specification, summary of the invention, and drawings, all of which are relied upon for full disclosure of the invention.